Monday, May 7, 2012

Many of us experience episodes of fickleness; we have varying moods and opinions on any given subject, about any particular relationship or about a task. Often we feel mixed, divided or its near cousin, indecision. While not deciding, may be a decision--to sit on the fence and do nothing-- fickleness and indecision in the mind of some, like Thomas Merton, may be an indication of something else.
Merton, a man who has a lot to say about so much of the spiritual life, both east and west, is easily read and invites his reader into his world with simple clarity. He, as some may know, was a friend of the 14th Dalai Lama, who sometimes speaks of him still.

Writing in New Seeds of Contemplation, Merton says, "Fickleness and indecision are signs of self-love." The person who cannot make up their mind about what the Divine calls them to, often trailing from one opinion to the next, engaged in one practice then another, maybe then these are the indications that you shirk the will of the Divine, instead preferring and substituting it for your own, self-centered spinning. Possibly, you wish to go by your own will with a quiet conscience.
As soon as you arrive at one spiritual center or monastery, you wish to go to another; as soon as you taste one form of prayer, you seek still others. Resolutions you do make, and resolutions you do break. Counter-resolutions abbreviate or eliminate prior thoughts; the spinning goes on. You spend much time in the religion or self help section in a bookstore, reading many things and settling on little. Soon Merton says, "you have no interior life at all. Your whole existence is a patchwork of confused desires and daydreams."

You or your ego mean to resist the works of harmony or grace; it is an elaborate, subconscious method to play defeat in the face of the Divine, to not see what is in the way for you, to take up no method, nor any way at all.

No comments:

Great Gardens

Page Views

With more than 50,000 pages accessed, simplemindzen at blogspot.com is read on all continents and in 40 different languages to date.Thanks to its loyal readers.

Living the Simple life

There is a small place near here of a family living the Simple Life. Taking the practice to heart, they have, since September 2009, provided a local C-U community food pantry with a weekly supply of their home produced, free range, organic eggs from their small flock of 40 birds to anyone in the community who goes to the food pantry-- to the tune of 700 dozen eggs so far and counting! That's over seven thousand eggs, wow.

There are many things we can all do, both great and small, in our own communities. Join in for the benefit of all, for the Dharma it brings. It all starts with a smile.

New At Simple Mind Zen

Translate

Subscribe SimpleMindZen

Promote & teach Hindu philosophy

Commentary about the Simple Mind

This site does not engage in "New Age" or other Spiritualities that fall outside of what are often considered the great religions of the world: Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and Judaism.

Yep, that's still a whole lot of territory to cover. I restrict comments to these because they encompass most of all belief systems, both theistic and non-theistic. So you aren't going to find a lot of sentient beings or other such terms here. Just everyday simple talk.

Affirming the Practice Principles of the Ordinary Mind Zen School:Caught in a dream of self--only suffering.Holding to self-centered thoughts--exactly the dream.Each moment, life as it is--the only Teacher.Being just this moment--compassion's way.

Some writers and persons bandy about terms such as sentient being or transformation, and while these words have specific connotations within different spiritual traditions, they can be as much of a hindrance as a help in coming to understand ourselves, the world and the path, or the way in which we find ourselves.

I emphasize that the Simple Mind is a mind that values experience and recognizes the utility of words; but words are limited. Not all experiences can be easily reflected in words. Do not lose sight of experiences as the simple way of a Simple Mind.